Shaved Ice – Jan. 15

Exciting time of year, isn’t it?

We spent some more time at Compuware today, and we were glad to see Pavel Datsyuk back on the ice in a Winged Wheel jersey. Here’s our photo gallery from the third day of camp – we’ll have more coming throughout the day, obviously.

There is a press conference at 4:45, where it is expected that the Wings will announce Henrik Zetterberg as their next captain. Then, one hour and 15 minutes later, the club will compete in a ‘Red and White’ scrimmage game. If you want to watch, doors open at 5 p.m., and we suggest getting there a little early.

Check out our photo galleries of Day 1 of training camp, and click here for Day 2. There’s gotta be like 80 photos between the two, so hopefully you see one or two in there that you actually like.

NHL Central Scouting released their midterm rankings today – see the full list right here. College Hockey, Inc., has pulled out all of the college-bound players, and you can see that list here. Some of the top names we have been keeping an eye on are Michigan commit J.T. Compher (No. 20), Plymouth Whalers forward Ryan Hartman (No. 25) and Western Michigan commit and Macomb native Mike McCarron (No. 31).

The latest high school hockey rankings are out – see if your school made the list.

Former Spirit star Brandon Saad is our Michi-gamer of the day. Find out why right here.

While I’m ignoring the ‘hockey is back’ message all over the screen, the video itself is pretty cool.

The NHL and the NHLPA are already having ‘discussions’ – the union has reached out to the league to talk about the recent developments surrounding Scott Gomez and Wade Redden. Both players have been sent home – with pay – so that they can be released over the summer. Hope this doesn’t cause any problems.

Here’s a list from TSN on some rookies to watch when NHL play begins. Brendan Smith cracks the list, by the way.

That No. 87 nobody likes around here topped the same site’s list of the 50 NHL top players. I’m sure many of you disagree. For the record, the Red Wings’ No. 13 checks in at No. 5.

The whole Central Division is broken down by ESPN right now. Their take on the Wings focuses on a lot of the new, fresh legs that are coming up through the system in Grand Rapids.

While the NHL is back, it’s important that nobody forgets about the hockey that got us through the dark ages. Also, I’m urging everybody to stop using the phrase “hockey is back”. Click on the image below to read the first post of my new blog, where I tackle that frustrating phrase/hashtag, that’s insulting to the rest of hockey.

Back to Compuware soon…we’ll have plenty of news for you throughout the night.